Composer Yiannis Markopoulos has died at the age of 84.

Since the beginning of May, the musician has been hospitalized at the Alexandra hospital and was intubated in the intensive care unit.

His life and work

Yiannis Markopoulos was widely regarded as one of the most important Greek composers. He was born in 1939 in Heraklion, Crete. His father was Georgios Markopoulos and his mother was Irini Aeraki. His childhood was spent in Ierapetra, the birthplace of his father, at whose conservatory he took his first music lessons in theory and violin.

In 1956, he continued his music studies at the Athens Conservatory with composer Georgios Sklavos and violin teacher Joseph Bustidui. At the same time, he entered the Panteillon University for social and philosophical studies, while composing music for theater, film and dance.

In 1959 he wrote Three Sketches for a Dance which was recorded and broadcast by the then EIR Symphony Orchestra. In 1963 he was awarded for his music in “Aphrodite’s Micres” by Nikos Koundouros at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, and in the same year his musical works “Theseus” (dance drama), “Hiroshima” (ballet suite) and “Three Dance Sketches” were staged with a new dance. ensembles.

Composite work

In the early 70s, he realized his musical vision: he presented musical works that are generally characterized as a new proposal and intersection for the previously Greek musical reality; works with the unity of composer’s aesthetics and philosophical point of view in terms of fundamental principles, but each of them is different.

A little later, he founded the Palintonos Harmonia Orchestra, which includes symphonic and Greek instruments. He presents his work at the Ledra studio and then at the Kittaro boutique with young singers and musicians. He teaches how to interpret his music and songs in the aesthetic direction he has always sought. Together with theatrical moments and visual design, he builds a multimodal musical performance. The intelligentsia and students day by day fill the expanses of his activity, despite the obstacles of the then authorities. His songs such as Ochtroi, Loya ia chroni, A thousand thousand waves, Lengo (Greece), Gigantas, Kato sti sis Margaritas to alonaki, Kafeneion i Hellas, Our place is closed, Complained words, I speak of my children and many others become symbols and legends. It is the same with his musical works “Free Besieged”, “O Stratis, o Thalassinos among Agapanthos”, “Helios o Protos”, “Chronico”, “Citizenship”, “Plato”, “Phytia” and “Immigrants” – in poems and poems by Solomos, Seferis, Elytis, K.Kh. Mayr, Mich. Katsaros, Eleftheriou, Skourtis, Theodoridis and his own.

In 1976 he composed the music for the BBC television series Who Pays the Ferryman? and the theme music reaches the top of the English charts. The composer becomes world famous.

In 1977, the secular liturgy “Free Besieged” begins, based on a poem by our national poet Dionysios Solomos, which in the same year is performed in front of 22,000 young people in the stadium in Athens under the direction of the composer. Giannis Markopoulos celebrates the sophisticated musical landscape of the 70s with his work and attitude.

The popularity of his music abroad is expressed in many invitations to concerts. The composer makes frequent trips around the world. He consistently visits, giving concerts with his works, the USA, Canada, Sweden, Holland, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, England, as well as various cities in Russia and Australia.

His creative work includes music for theater and cinema, works by Euripides, Aristophanes, Menander, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Becket and modern Greeks, with the National Theatre, Karolos Kuhn Arts Theatre, Spyros Evagelatos Amphitheater and with directors Alexis Solomos. , Pello Katseli, Minoa Volonakis and others. Among the films: “Whirlwind and Byron” by Kunduros, “Scream of Women and Rehearsal” by Jules Dassin, “Beloved” by G. Kosmatos, “Fear” by Kostas Manousakis, “Operation Apollo” by G. Skalenakis, “ The Fate of the Innocent” by Grigoris Grigoriou (Thessaloniki Film Music Award – Festival).